Judge upholds $20g cash bail for suspect in drug bust

SOMERSWORTH — Bail has been upheld at $20,000 for a 58-year-old man held at the county jail since his August arrest following a significant police investigation and subsequent drug bust.

In mid-September, Chester O. Rines, 58, of 34 Jack and Jill Park, sought to be released from jail under supervision by Community Corrections, but was denied.

In late November, Rines waived his arraignment in Strafford County Superior Court. At that time, his lawyer did not feel comfortable moving forward with setting bail as the state was seeking to hold Rines without bail and cited heroin possession as an “offense punishable by life in prison.”

At his bail hearing Monday morning, a judge ordered Rines remain held on $20,000 cash.

Rines was indicted on seven counts following a drug bust at his residence on Aug. 29. The indictments state Rines committed the crime of possession of controlled drugs with the intent to sell.

As a result of that August drug bust, members of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Drug Task Force and the Somersworth Police Department seized more than three ounces of heroin, more than 500 oxycodone pills, about a half pound of marijuana, assorted drug paraphernalia and more than $84,000 in cash.